Global spending on big data is expected to rise at a CAGR of 29.6% over the next five years to reach $114 billion in 2018, according to ABI Research.
This forecast includes the money spent on internal salaries, professional services, technology services, internal hardware, and internal software.
“We estimate that in big data initiatives, salaries account for about half of the current spending, with the other half allocated to vendors’ products and services,” Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI Research.
“What we’re now seeing is quite significant overspending on salaries, as organizations turn to data scientists and other specialists in order to leverage big data in the first place,” added Markkanen. “Similarly, a good share of the money is spent on the associated professional services, which have sprung up to assist firms that are data-rich but skills-poor.”
Narrowing the said skills gap, as well as improving the productivity of dedicated data scientists, represents a lucrative revenue opportunity for the sector’s vendors.